GREEN BAY - David Martin watches the “SportsCenter” top 10 plays on ESPN with a little more anticipation than he used to.

The Howard native has viewed highlights of football and baseball players making spectacular catches throughout his life on the TV program.

But in recent years, he’s found himself looking forward to seeing the ones of players stretching out to grab a Frisbee.

Those instances are occurring more and more. Martin considers them to be a highlight of owning a team in the American Ultimate Disc League.

“It’s always fun listening to the ESPN guys as they’re trying to announce it,” said Martin, who is a co-owner of the Madison Radicals with his stepbrother, Chad Coopmans, and Tim Debyl, a Hobart native.

The trio of University of Wisconsin alums is largely responsible for why the AUDL championship is being held at Madison’s Breese Stevens Stadium this weekend.

Tim Debyl is a co-owner, coach and player for the Madison Radicals. The 1991 Pulaski graduate has been playing ultimate Frisbee for 16 years.(Photo: Courtesy of Madison Radicals)

The undefeated Radicals (15-0) are hoping to advance to the league’s title game for a third time in four years when they face the Seattle Cascade at 7 p.m. Saturday in the second of two semifinal contests. The championship game will take place at noon Sunday.

The Radicals have won 31 straight home games and are seeking their first title. The fourth-year franchise has averaged more than 850 fans per game and is looking to sell out the 4,500 seats at Breese Stevens Stadium for the league’s championship weekend.

“We’re one of the more successful teams in the league, both on the field and off,” said Debyl, who is a 1991 Pulaski graduate. “I think part of it is we have a good team working on it.”

Debyl, 43, wears many hats for the Radicals. He is an owner, coach and player in addition to serving as the marketing manager for the AUDL, which is in its fifth season of play.

The highlights appearing more frequently on ESPN are largely a credit to Debyl, who played an integral role in getting an AUDL game of the week to be featured on the ESPN3 online video stream.

Debyl began playing ultimate Frisbee 16 years ago when his boss asked him to compete in a league.

He’s been hooked since, leading him to coaching a college women’s club team and eventually pondering the idea of hosting games featuring top players in showcase events.

When the premise for a professional league came to his attention, Debyl knew it was something he had to get involved with.

“There was a moment where my wife thought I was a little crazy for deciding to buy a professional ultimate Frisbee team,” said Debyl, who owns a marketing and design company. “We had just had our second daughter at the time and she was like, ‘Is this really a good idea?’ But now my family loves it.”

Martin and Coopmans, who work as consultants, didn’t know much about ultimate Frisbee when they saw an advertisement for a professional sports franchise on Craigslist.

David Martin, left, and Chad Coopmans on the field during a Madison Radicals game in 2013. The 1997 Bay Port graduates made the decision to become co-owners of the team with Tim Debyl to bring the American Ultimate Disc League to Madison.(Photo: Courtesy of Chad Coopmans)

The 1997 Bay Port alums have season tickets for the Green Bay Packers and are fans of a variety of sports. After learning more about the fledgling AUDL, the stepbrothers decided to form a partnership with Debyl. Coopmans and Debyl later learned they were second cousins.

“I thought it would be kind of fun to run a sports team and do all the behind-the-scenes stuff,” Coopmans said

“Ultimate is a combination of basketball, soccer, hockey, football, so it takes elements from each of those sports, but you use a Frisbee instead. It’s a neat sport to watch.”

Martin and Coopmans have been crucial in handling game-day operations and planning other aspects relating to the team. They also served as the drivers the first two seasons when the team traveled to road games in a pair of 15-person passenger vans.

Most of the players on the Radicals roster are from the Madison area or Iowa. One of the exceptions is Seth Meyer, who is a mathematics professor at St. Norbert College.

Martin said the biggest perk for players in the AUDL is the opportunity to compete against top competition without spending thousands of dollars to travel, which is what many of them did before to play on elite club teams.

The AUDL has grown from eight to 26 teams in five years. Games start in April, and teams only play opponents in their division during a 14-game schedule for the regular season to cut down on travel costs.

“We’re really trying to emulate the experience fans would have going to a (minor league baseball) game,” said Martin, who estimates the operating cost for the Radicals this season to be around $60,000.

“When I told my friends I was doing this, many of them were pretty skeptical. Ultimate Frisbee has traditionally had that stereotype of just a bunch of college kids out on the grass throwing the Frisbee around and it wasn’t a legitimate sport. I think a lot of them just kind of rolled their eyes and were like, ‘All right we’ll see how this goes.’”

Debyl said there are 4,500 people playing ultimate Frisbee in city leagues at Madison and about 5 million people across the nation playing the game.

He feels the sport has the potential to grow greatly as a spectator sport.

“We’re basically going from a participation sport where nobody watched to suddenly making this a national sport,” Debyl said.

“This game is even cooler to watch than it is to play sometimes. I’m just really excited about where we’re going.”